Settlers urged to lay siege to Knesset

The head of the main Israeli settler organisation has called on supporters to surround parliament in a bid to block the planned Gaza pullout.

22 Dec 2004 10:19 GMT

About 11% of Gaza's settlers say they will resort to violence

"We are appealing for protests to take place day and night at the Knesset in the coming month along the model of the Ukrainians," Bentzi Lieberman, the head of the Yesha settlers council, told Israeli radio.

Lieberman said the Israeli population needed "an electric shock" to stop the evacuation of the 8000 Jewish settlers from Gaza due in September 2005.

Like supporters of Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, the settlers have also adopted orange as their campaign colour.

Mass demonstrations by Yushchenko's followers outside Ukrainian government buildings played a major part in the decision to re-stage a disputed presidential poll later this month.

Some Jewish settlers from Gaza have caused outrage with plans to wear orange Stars of David as a mark of protest, drawing a clear analogy to the Holocaust when Jews were forced by the Nazis to wear yellow stars.

Poll reveals opposition

A poll published by the Yediot Aharonot daily on Wednesday indicated that 32% of Gaza's Jewish settlers supported the idea of the orange star protest, while 42% were against it.

Some Jewish settlers in Gaza say they will barricade themselves in

The same poll also found that 44% of Jews settled in Gaza planned to barricade themselves inside their homes in a bid to resist the evacuation while only 23% said they would leave without resistance.

Eleven per cent said they planned to resort to violence.

Only 26% of the settlers said they thought the use of violence could be justified while 67% said it was not.